... and beyond

Particle Physics

Key Questions

The types of elementary particles, as stated within the Standard Model of Particle Physics, are up quarks, down quarks, strange quarks, charm quarks, top quarks, and bottom quarks, electrons, muons, taus, electron neutrinos, muon neutrinos, tau neutrinos, W bosons, Z bosons, gamma photons, gluons, and the elusive Higgs Boson, which, even now, has not had existence truly proven, as there have not been any created that last long enough to examine properly.

The Standard Model of Particle Physics is separated into 5 generations of matter and three overall types of particle: the quarks, the leptons, force carriers, and the Higgs Boson, which has its own generation of matter.

Protons and neutrons are composed of up quarks and down quarks: protons consist of two up quarks and a down quark, and neutrons consist of two down quarks and an up quark.